The Statue of Lady Justice may have the right idea for helping people listen to each other so they can work together to solve problems.

If justice wears a blindfold, maybe the rest of us should, too.

That’s just one lesson I’ve learned from watching Gabriel Kahan lead democratic processes called creative assemblies.

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Kahan is an unusual figure in California and in the democratic world. Democratic processes that engage regular people, instead of just politicians, are growing more popular in the U.S. — from participatory budgeting (a Brazilian invention) to deliberative assemblies (from Europe and Japan).

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But Kahan, working in Southern California, has developed his own method for helping people bridge divides and understand local problems. And he has applied it in dozens of convenings within institutions from the Los Angeles Police Department to Hollywood and in places from Bel Air to Watts.

These creative assemblies have a California flavor, fusing art, pedagogy, collective intelligence and, yes, blindfolds.

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Kahan asks participants to don blindfolds to get them to listen more closely. Free to look around, people in group conversation listen less, he has found — they glance at their neighbors, focus on what they’ll say next and more often interrupt.

The removal of sight forces a rare form of attention. Blindfolded........

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